Razorback Diving Travels To NCAA Zone Championships

BY ANDRES FOCIL

FAYETTEVILLE — Four divers will represent the University of Arkansas at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships held Monday-Wednesday in Minneapolis, Minn. The meet serves to qualify divers for the NCAA Championships on March 20-22 in Minneapolis, Minn. Arkansas’ representation consists of senior Kesha Naylor (Saskatchewan, Canada), junior Meghan Clark (Frisco, Texas) and sophomores Shelby Bartlett (Noblesville, Ind.) and Hannah Bortnick (Mission Hills, Kan.).

“Hopefully each and every one of them will have their best performances of the whole year,” head coach Sean Schimmel said. “If we take those opportunities and run with them, the end results are going help bring another one, maybe two, to the NCAA Championships. That’s obviously the ultimate goal. If we have our best performances, that would be outstanding.”

To qualify for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships, divers must earn a minimum qualification score in at least one diving event. The zone diving meets then serve to qualify divers for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Arkansas will be competing in Zone D. Zone D has an allocation of nine divers to send to the NCAA Championships based on their performances at zones.

Bartlett, Bortnick and Naylor will compete in all three events and Clark will compete on both springboards. Events are scheduled to begin each day at 11 a.m.

The Razorbacks will enter competition off a record-breaking showing at the 2014 SEC Championships. Bartlett earned personal-best scores in three-meter diving and platform diving and Bortnick scored career-best marks in the platform diving event.

Naylor scored a season-high 316.40 in three-meter diving earlier in the season against Alabama and Kentucky. Naylor also recorded the fourth-best platform diving score in program history with a 284.70 at the Mizzou Invitational last November.

Live stats will be available at ArkansasRazorbacks.com during competition.

For more information on Arkansas swimming and diving, follow @RazorbackSwim on Twitter.